Ableton Forum

hey all,

anyone using a AKAI Pad 16 with Live 4?

i'm considering one, will be happy to see some opinions


thanks

check out the roland sp606

I have a old Sp 808 that i want to sell.. i only need the controller pad in fact.. thanks any way.

any one that has one? (akai pad)

What's the deal on the new blue MPD16? Is it...blue?

Duck

does anyone know the cheapest place to get one in uk (or europe). a friend got one about six months ago for less than £100. that's about what i'd be prepared to pay. i think it's about time i invested in one too!

Yeah I want one aswell... I've got a px-7 command station, which I dont need since Live 4, and i end up just using it for the pads!! Makes a lot of difference for recording drum parts I think, much more intuitive.

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 5:37 pm Post subject:

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Rx wrote:
how are the pads on the MPD-16? enquiring minds want to know.


Responsive and immediate. Which is good. Because they don't travel as far as keys go, I find them FAR superior for percussion.

That is to say, if I were to use the black n whites on my ReMote 25 for percussion, I would have to press the key down about three eigths of an inch before a trigger was sent. This makes percussion a pain, and I found it hard to get good timing. The MPD-16's pads has solved this problem quite well, eliminating the latency caused by key travel time.

They're a little hard for my taste, I expected them to be "rubberyer", but then again, I got used to 'em fairly soon. I didn't know how rubbery is normal, and it's hard to judge by pictures. I bought mine online, so I didn't play with it before hand.

The pads could have been a little bigger, but they are big enough to do the job. The pictures on the internet make this thing look big, like an MPC-1000 or something - it isn't, this is a TINY unit.

You can set it so the pads transmit actual velocity from 1-127, or in 16 steps from 1-127 (good for percussion, I use this) or full bore velocity, in that 127 is transmitted no matter how hard or soft you hit the pads. This would is useful for things like a kick drum in a house track, or for triggering phrases. My rule of thumb is use the incremental 16 step mode for individual drum hits, and the full on mode for triggering loops.

What lacks is the ability to mix n' match the velocity modes across different pads. If you can do this, then I don't know how. Also, I would have liked to be able to set a velocity range (min and or max velocity transmitted), and have different velocity curves (logarithmic, exponential, linear, S, etc). I would LOVE these features. I hardly ever want to transmit a low velocity like from 1 - 25 or so, and to set a minimum 26 would have been useful. I guess I am just spoiled by the ReMote, where it has a LOT of these programming options.

Again, if these options available, I don't know how to get 'em...

L8er
Montrealbreaks
_________________

Marcus

I didn't know you had one of these! I've been thinking about a HandSonic. It makes great sense to me. I wish there was a no-sound no-sequencer version of it.

Duck- (Faderfoxes arrive from France tonight!)

i've got one..what do you wanna know?

Olaf

ducktail wrote:
I didn't know you had one of these! I've been thinking about a HandSonic. It makes great sense to me. I wish there was a no-sound no-sequencer version of it.

Duck- (Faderfoxes arrive from France tonight!)

Yah - it's stuck somewhere in a box for the impending move, and I didn't feel like unpacking it for the tour. For me it's more a beat making tool than a live performance tool. You don't need accurate timing with a quantize feature!

L8er
Montrealbreaks

ducktail wrote:Marcus

I didn't know you had one of these! I've been thinking about a HandSonic. It makes great sense to me. I wish there was a no-sound no-sequencer version of it.

Me too! I do percussion aswell, was thinking about getting one, but would prob only use it as a controller!

i had one, but I sold it.

The CONS: The latency was slow, and the pads felt stiff. The velocity sensitivity was course in the soft end (it didn't pick up the subtle taps, only the middle to hard taps). This was all on an iMac running OS 10.

The PROS: Pretty, cheap, and sturdy. And the resail value was good.

I didn't care for mine. I like the pads and feel on the Korg MicroKontrol a LOT more.

QWERTY

ok , i get a general idea now..

thanks to all

Anyone actually have a handsonic?

Duck

PS Marcus...lost yer email on this machine

ducktail wrote: PS Marcus...lost yer email on this machine

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